Happy birthday to Rachel and Henry (last month)!

Somehow last year I managed to do separate birthday posts for these two, but this year that's not going to happen because I'm getting too far behind.  I'm guessing they won't mind. 

For those of you who don't know, Henry was born on Rachel's fourth birthday, July 30th.  Here I am with Rachel that night after her birthday celebration and right before I left to go to the hospital.

Now two years later, we have this (Rachel turning 6 and Henry turning 2):

 

We set them up on the couch with all their presents and then they took turns opening. 

One of Rachel's favorites was the "Pretty Pretty Princess" game.  If any of you have young girls, get them this game.  They will love it.  

She was pretty happy about all of her presents, though (this girl is not hard to please):

All ready for kindergarten with her new backpack and lunch-bag:

Henry got two new Star Wars shirts.  That's pretty much all he wears now - he just switches back and forth between the two (the other one has a Lego Darth Vader and storm troopers on it).

He also got a little Star Wars book:

And Oliver made some special Star Wars drawings just for him:

We did manage to get him some non-Star Wars presents.  Lizza's Strider bike that she got on her birthday has been a big hit, so we got another one for Rachel and Henry to share (we figured Rachel can mainly use it first until she learns how to ride her regular bike without training wheels, and by that time Henry will be big enough to start crusing around on it).  The seat height is adjustable, so it's easy to switch back and forth between the two.  Henry just likes to walk it around everywhere now. 

 Here he is with some of his other treasures:

The birthday kids enjoying Rachel's breakfast choice of pancakes with strawberries and whipped cream:

On our way to the pool.  Rachel was so excited to be able to ride the Strider - she goes way faster on it than she did on her training-wheel bike.

Rachel picked hot dogs and cheetohs and lemonade for her birthday picnic lunch at the pool.  I don't like cheetohs and never buy them, so my kids get cheetohs once a year - on Rachel's birthday.  She picks them every year without fail.  Lucky for her she was born in the summer, because we always go to the pool for her birthday lunch, and the horrible orange fingers they cause don't even bother me there.

Rachel and Henry with their hot dogs:

Rachel swimming with her new mermaid:

Henry fell in love with the cheetohs and wouldn't part with the bag the whole walk home:

After we got home from the pool I spent the rest of the afternoon making these:

Ever since Rachel started noticing cakes at grocery stores, she has begged and begged for one of the barbie "dress" cakes. I found an online instruction video and decided to just try it. Rachel was thrilled.

Henry requested the dinosaur cake.

Somewhere during the decorating process I decided I'm done with making fancy birthday cakes.  I think doing the two of them in one day was just too much.  Lizza did get me to commit to making her a barbie cake like Rachel's for her 5th bithday next year, but other than that, no more!  I made an announcement to all the kids, and they're fine with it.  I think we're going to move on to birthday pies now.  Either that, or the kids will decorate their own cakes like Oliver did last year.

They were pretty happy with their choices this year, though:

Everyone licking the frosting off the candles.  Do other kids do this?  That's always the first thing my kids want to do once the blowing out of the candles is done, and I'm always like, "you guys, let's just eat the cake - there's way more frosting on the cake," but then in the back of my mind I can kind of remember doing the same thing when I was young so I still let them.  Maybe I should add "bowl of frosting" to the list of possible cake choices in the future, and we can just skip the cake altogether. 

I'm so grateful for both of these birthday kids.

Rachel is such a funny little girl, and causes us absolutely no trouble.  She seriously is the easiest kid - she's super obedient, she's never done tantrums, she doesn't talk back.  She just kind of does her own thing, which is usually pretty entertaining to watch.  She has always been a huge help with the younger kids, and I'm going to miss her when she's at kindergarten this year.

(slideshow of Rachel over the years - click the x to close the annoying ad)

As far as Henry goes, we are all so in love with him.  He is just so adorable we can hardly stand it.  Every day he gets cuter because he is learning new things so fast - I could sit and watch him play/talk/interact with the other kids all day.

He talks constantly and is able to have long conversations with people.  He loves Star Wars (obviously), dinosaurs, animals, legos, drawing, and anything the older kids are doing.  He definitely thinks he's one of the big kids, and is not happy about the start of the new school year.  He's just an awesome kid.

Thanks for making us so happy, Rachel and Henry!